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fear, with its feelers hanging sideways; if it be frightened, it makes its escape
backwards, darting off to a great distance. These animals fight one another
with their claws, just as rams fight with their horns, raising them and striking
their opponents; they are often also seen crowded together in herds. So much
for the mode of life of the crustacean.
Molluscs are all carnivorous; and of molluscs the calamary and the sepia
are more than a match for fishes even of the large species. The octopus for the
most part gathers shellfish, extracts the flesh, and feeds on that; in fact,
fishermen recognize their holes by the number of shells lying about. Some say
that the octopus devours its own species, but this statement is incorrect; it is
doubtless founded on the fact that the creature is often found with its tentacles
removed, which tentacles have really been eaten off by the conger.
Fishes, all without exception, feed on spawn in the spawning season; but in
other respects the food varies with the varying species. Some fishes are
exclusively carnivorous, as the cartilaginous genus, the conger, the channa or
Serranus, the tunny, the bass, the synodon or Dentex, the amia, the sea-perch,
and the muraena. The red mullet is carnivorous, but feeds also on sea-weed,
on shell-fish, and on mud. The grey mullet feeds on mud, the dascyllus on
mud and offal, the scarus or parrot-fish and the melanurus on sea-weed, the
saupe on offal and sea-weed; the saupe feeds also on zostera, and is the only
fish that is captured with a gourd. All fishes devour their own species, with
the single exception of the cestreus or mullet; and the conger is especially
ravenous in this respect. The cephalus and the mullet in general are the only
fish that eat no flesh; this may be inferred from the facts that when caught
they are never found with flesh in their intestines, and that the bait used to
catch them is not flesh but barley-cake. Every fish of the mullet-kind lives on
sea-weed and sand. The cephalus, called by some the ‘chelon’, keeps near in
to the shore, the peraeas keeps out at a distance from it, and feeds on a
mucous substance exuding from itself, and consequently is always in a
starved condition. The cephalus lives in mud, and is in consequence heavy
and slimy; it never feeds on any other fish. As it lives in mud, it has every
now and then to make a leap upwards out of the mud so as to wash the slime
from off its body. There is no creature known to prey upon the spawn of the
cephalus, so that the species is exceedingly numerous; when, however, the is
full-grown it is preyed upon by a number of fishes, and especially by the
acharnas or bass. Of all fishes the mullet is the most voracious and insatiable,
and in consequence its belly is kept at full stretch; whenever it is not starving,
it may be considered as out of condition. When it is frightened, it hides its
head in mud, under the notion that it is hiding its whole body. The synodon is
carnivorous and feeds on molluscs. Very often the synodon and the channa
cast up their stomachs while chasing smaller fishes; for, be it remembered,
1155
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156